There is a brand new study hot off the presses of agency 360i (reported in Adweek) that says that Google Home is much more likely to answer a user’s question than Amazon Alexa. The study is based on 3,000 questions being asked to both question. The headline states that Google Home is “six times more ‘effective’ than Alexa.”
Past the conclusion, there wasn’t much else reported about the nature of the questions or where Home succeeded and Alexa faltered. Digital assistants that weren’t included in the test was Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri. According to the company, additional findings will be revealed in the weeks ahead.
Stone Temple Consulting had done an earlier comparison that involved “5,000 different questions about everyday factual knowledge” on Google Home, Alexa, Cortana and Siri, and they seem to generally agree with the 360i data. But, it seems that, according to the Stone Temple Temple study, it was found that there was a smaller gap between the volume of questions answered by the two devices, as well as Alexa was nearly as accurate for the questions answered.
So here’s a good question – what if the majority of consumers don’t really care if Google Home can answer more general knowledge/search-style questions? Right now, the main use for these devices are areas where Alexa does fairly well:
- Playing music
- Setting alarms and timers
- Smart home functions
- News and weather
- Traffic information
- Checking calendar/appointments
The virtual assistants found on smart phones are used so much more than Google Home or Alexa, and over time, smartphone use cases and smart speaker use cases may more directly overlap. This gives Google a clear advantage. But if the usage of smart speakers remains fairly defined, Amazon will retain a competitive advantage, due to the more diversified device lineup, as well as its customer loyalty and its direct sales channel.
According to estimates from eMarketer, Amazon currently has a 71 percent share of the smart speaker market. Google Home has a smart speaker market of 24 percent. According to another forecast, by the end of the year, there will be 30 million smart speakers/virtual assistants in people’s homes.